Enjoy the Silence
by Machine Imperium
Summary: After TLO Percy is about 19-20ish and Nico is 15-16ish P.S. This story doesn't have much to do with the Depeche Mode song. I just liked the way it sounds :D
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own PJO. I am a girl, and clearly not Rick Riordan. **

Chapter 1 

**Lottie's POV **

I was at school when they told me.

My science teacher told me to go to the office. I thought it was really weird that she was crying. Maybe she had allergies.

So I got my messenger bag and went up to the front office. They told me that my mom had a heart attack, and died. I fainted in shock. She was all I had. My dad left before I was born. I was an orphan.

The principal took me home, and left me with the EMTs, the police, and my new caretaker, Ms. Jane.

I ran past them all up to my room. Grabbing my duffel bag, I began to pull clothes out of my closet, enough to last me a week. Then I took everything important to me, and put it in there too. Laptop, cell phone, wallet, driver's license, camera, iPod, all of it. I ran into my mom's old room and opened the top drawer to find the secret stash. Over a thousand dollars that my mom had saved up over the years. I took all of it.

Running downstairs, I went into the kitchen. Here, I took food, water, a flashlight, batteries, first aid kit, and my meds.

And I left.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, I'm gonna be updating a lot because I have WAY too much spare time. No just this story, either. My other stories, ****Let the Madness Begin****, and ****352****, will be updated often!!!**

Chapter 2 

My spectacular, amazing, fantabulous plan was to go down to the subways, and go from Manhattan (where our apartment was) to Queens, where my friend lived.

So I walked down the street to my local subway station, gave it my metro card, and waited for the next train. As I was standing there, I noticed this really weird dude, watching me. Trust me, I know weird when I see it, being a New Yorker, you get a lot of it.

This guy had a Rasta cap on and seriously baggy jeans. He kept shuffling around, like he was really nervous. I turned and started walking towards a hot dog stand as if I wanted to buy one. I turned back around and he was walking towards me. I walked a little farther to a bench, and sat down. The dude comes over and sits next to me. Who's this guy think he is?

"Hello. Are you alone?" he asks.

Okay, NEVER EVER tell anyone if you are alone. This could be a serious mistake.

"No, I'm, uh, waiting for my boyfriend. He's coming back from a bodybuilding competition." I lied, trying to scare him off.

"No, really, are you alone?" he asked again. I could tell he knew I was lying.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just wanna know."

"Fine. Yes I am alone. Happy?" I said finally.

"Good. Come with me." He stood up and started walking back to the street.

"What the heck? Are you going to like kill me or something?"

"No! No, I promise. I…. I have to take you somewhere safe. You're in a lot of danger. Please. I can't fail this time." The way he looked convinced me. I couldn't help it. I followed him up to the street. We walked towards Brooklyn, as if to go to Long Island. He stopped and turned to an empty parking space. He pulled out a golden coin and I randomly thought about how much that thing would be worth. He threw the coin onto the pavement and it looked like it would just bounce off, and roll away. Instead it sank into the pavement and the dude shouted something. Almost instantly a gray, smoky cab appeared.

"Come on, it's solid." He said, as he opened the door and held it open for me. I got in, and looked around. In the front seat were three old ladies. It looked like a regular old cab. The guy got in and sat next to me. He leaned forward, and said "Long Island. Delphi Strawberry Service."

"Okay, that'll be two drachmas." The one on the right said. The dude handed her two more of those weird gold coins, and the cab pulled out into the traffic. I turned to the dude.

"I want some questions answered. Who are you? Where are you taking me? Why me?" I asked.

"My name is Grover Underwood. I'm taking you to a place called Camp Half-Blood. Why you? Because it's one of the only safe places for people like you."

**Sorry!! Grover is a little stalker-ish and sorta OOC. '**

**kthanxbai**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

"What do you mean 'safe for people like me'? How am I different?" I asked angrily. An old habit of twirling my long strawberry-blonde hair around my fingers when I got nervous came back to me. I took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm sorry; I'm just really really upset right now."

"It's okay. I can't explain everything right now, or you'll think I'm crazy. I promise, though, I'll explain stuff later on. As for how you're different, I bet you have ADHD, and are dyslexic. You've never met one of your parents. And you get kicked outta schools a lot.'' Grover said.

"How did you- so?" I asked. "I bet lots of people are like that."

"I can tell. And yes, lots of kids and teens are like that. Including you."

What he said made me think. I remember my mom talking to me one day about if I ever needed help, go to Long Island. Thinking about my mom hurt, and my eyes started to tear up. No, I'm not going to cry. Not now, not in front of _him_ either. I sniffled my tears back, and looked out the window. As we drove by, I saw a fruit stand. Sitting there were three old ladies knitting these _huge _socks. The one in the middle took out a pair of scissors and cut the yarn. It seemed normal enough, but it bothered me for some reason. I turned and looked back at Grover. He was watching me carefully.

"What?" I asked

"Hm? Oh nothing. I was just randomly noticed your eyes. They're black."

"Yeah, I don't get it either. Isn't supposed to be really rare?" People ask me about that all the time. My mom says I got it from my dad. I looked back out the window. Now we were going down another country road, and up ahead was a couple hills and a seriously big pine tree with something gold in the branches.

We pulled up to the end of the road and I opened the door and got out. "Is this is?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Lottie, welcome to Camp Half-Blood.


	4. Chapter 4

**Enjoy. P.S. I'm not Rick Riordan this is a simple fanfiction.**

Chapter 4 

We hiked up the steep hill to the giant pine tree. Curled around the base was a really big dragon. I glanced over to Grover, but he seemed really relaxed, so I tried to just ignore the big, scary-looking dragon. Yeah. It's all normal. I just kept looking forward.

Eventually we reached the edge of the hill before it dropped just as steep as the other side. We were looking into a large valley. There were a bunch of cabins and a sky-blue, four-story farmhouse. There was also a lake, what looked like two Greek amphitheaters, and a Greek pavilion. As we neared the farmhouse, two guys, one my age and one who looked like he was in college, ran up.

"Hey, G-Man! What's up- who's that? You're new girlfriend?" The college kid asked. I glared at him.

"Uh, excuse me? I have a name, thank you." I said angrily. I suddenly felt self-conscious. All three of them were staring at me. I knew my eyes were probably kinda puffy and red. My hair was messy, and I really felt awkward because of my height problem ( I'm 15, am 4'3", and I think I've stopped growing). They were all so tall. Grr.

"So what is your name then?" The college kid asked in a childish voice you would use on five year olds, and _they _think it's stupid. I smacked him between the eyes.

"I'm not some stupid little kid." I said, trying to stand up straighter, so I looked a little taller.

"Well, who are you?" he asked, slightly annoyed, while rubbing the spot between his eyes.

"My name is Lottie. What is going on? Where am I? I- I want my mom." I whispered. I suddenly started crying, because my mom wasn't coming back. She was dead. The college kid hugged me.

"We need Chiron. He'll explain stuff better than we could. Nico, go find him." The college kid said to Grover and the other kid. The other kid ran off somewhere. I forced myself to stop crying. I was just making it worse on myself.

"So what's your name?" I asked the college kid.

"Percy. I guess you know that he's Grover, and the other kid was Nico." He said, letting me go from the slightly suffocating hug.

"Percy, I bet Acacia could erm, help her." Grover suggested. Percy's eyes went wide.

"Uh, really? After what happened…."

"She's special! She can help…. Sometimes." I was really curious about this 'Acacia' and why Percy was so scared of her.

"I'm not scared." I said quietly. They both looked at me.

"It's worth a shot…" Grover trailed off.

"Fine. Can you go find her?" Grover ran off and Percy led me to the big house and we sat on the wraparound porch. After about ten minutes, Grover ran up followed by a girl with long curly brown/black hair. She was wearing a lot of dark makeup, and well, she sorta scared me. Not by her appearance, but she had like this aura of…. Pain. I remained calm.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

"Try to help her. Please?" Percy asked. She rolled her eyes. I could tell she was a rebel, like me. People were scared of her, like me (even if I'm a midget) and she was really pretty, like me (or so people have said). She took off her black lace gloves. Her hands were tattooed in swirling designs. She held my head in her hands. I gasped, and my head twitched, but she didn't let go. Dark memories flashed through my mind. Some were mine, and some I didn't recognize. When I was told my mother was dead, a time when I was six, and even before that. An image of my dad. A tall man with wild hair and dark clothes. Tattooed hands, like Acacia. An image of him and my mother, laughing together. I tore my head out of Acacia's hands. The connection broke. I had tears streaming down my face, but I was smiling. Seeing my mom so happy felt good. I looked at Grover, Percy, and lastly, Acacia. She looked really pale.

"Who was that? The man, at the end. Who was he?" She asked.

"I think it was my dad. I've never met him, but that's how my mom describes- described him."

"Um, is your mom, um, okay, Lottie?" she asked. I never said my name, but I guess traveling through my painful memories tells you stuff.

I took a deep shuddering breath. "She's dead. She died this morning. I ran away. Grover found me, and took me here." I said. There was a collective gasp. "She was all I had. I'd never met my dad. They didn't even ever get married. He left before I was born."

As if on cue, Nico runs up outta breath closely followed by a friggen centaur. He was a middle-aged man with a scrubby brown beard. The human part ended and fused into a white Clydesdale. He was wearing a wrinkled shirt that said his other ride was a centaur. Haha. We (they; I didn't do much) quickly explained what had happened/what I had said. Chiron said he was going to place me in the Hermes cabin (no idea what that means…) with Acacia.

"Chiron. I need to talk with Annabeth. Can Lottie come with me?" This was the first time she had spoken since she looked in my head.

"Yes, go." She grabbed my hand and dragged me to the cabins up to a silvery one. She opened the door and started talking to a pretty girl with long blonde hair, and grey eyes.

"Annabeth, I need to talk to you. This is Lottie. She came this morning." They began whispering.

"Lottie, how old are you?" Annabeth asked gently. I knew she was asking because of my height.

"Fifteen. I've always been short." I said like I was proud of it.

"Oh. So is Acacia. Cool. So we're going to try something. Hold your hands up in front of you." I put my hands up as if I was going to give someone a double hi-five. Acacia placed her hands in mine and closed her eyes. My hands felt like they were burning, and I cried out. Acacia felt the same too, because she gasped. I looked at her hands. The tattoos were glowing. I looked at my own hands. An intricate design similar in style, but incredible different from Acacia's tattoos had appeared on my hands. It was glowing, but as I watched, they faded to black, like Acacia's.

"What does this mean?" I asked them. I could tell they were just as surprised and scared as me.

**Booyah! Longest chapter yet! 1,117 words. :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey just another annoying reminder!! This is a fanfiction people!! Enjoy! **

They stared at me in horror.

"What's going on?" I demanded. "Seriously, what is going on?!" I was starting to really freak out.

"Maybe we should explain Acacia's power first. Acacia's mom is Odyne. She's in Hermes cabin because we haven't made a cabin for her, and we probably won't. Odyne is the goddess of pain. She can hurt people if she touches them with her bare hands. That's why she wears her gloves. Even lace gloves like the ones she wears protect people. We're not sure still about some stuff though. Like now your hands….." Annabeth trailed off.

"Well we don't know if I can hurt people though, right?" I said weakly. Acacia's head snapped up to stare at me, then Annabeth.

"Place your hand in mine. If you cause pain, obviously it will hurt me. If not, you just got free, painless tattoos." Annabeth said. She extended her hand. I cautiously placed my hand in hers. Almost immediately she screamed out. I recoiled and whimpered slightly. I didn't like hurting people.

"What did it feel like?" Acacia asked.

"Like someone poured hot acid on my hand." Annabeth replied slowly.

"What's this mean for me? I have to beware touching people? What if I forget to wear gloves and I touch someone?" I started crying (again). This is turning out to be the worst day of my life. Annabeth glanced at Acacia.

"Last year, I was messed up. I thought my life was ruined. I- accidentally kissed my boyfriend and touched his face, without my gloves. He was killed. That was the worst day in my whole life." Acacia's eyes began to well up. I walked over and gave her a hug. She stiffened. I expected it to hurt, but I was fine. She seemed to be, as she hugged me back while we both cried. After a while we only were sniffling. I had forgotten Annabeth was still standing there.

"Do you have any gloves you can wear?" Annabeth suggested.

"Yeah, one sec." I dropped my duffel bag and dropped to my knees and started searching through it. Near the bottom I found my fingerless black elbow-length lace gloves. I was happy I had worn a frilly black and grey dress, because the gloves went with it. Wouldn't have worked with neon.

"It's getting late. You guys should get to the cabin. See you tomorrow." Annabeth said before walking back to the silvery cabin.

"Who's cabin is that?" I asked.

"Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

"Oh." She seemed angry at me. We walked into a cabin with fading green paint. The bunk beds inside were packed. There were a few kids in sleeping bags on the ground. Acacia walked to the very back of the cabin. There were two empty bunks. One at the top and one at the bottom. The bottom bunk looked lived in. it was unmade and the pillow was at the other end of the bed. The top bunk was clean and the bed was nicely made. I wondered why the kids sleeping on the floor didn't come back here. I asked Acacia.

"They're all scared of me. They'd rather sleep on the floor than near me." She said laughing. We silently changed into our pajamas. I found an oversized shirt and some sweatpants.

"Do you sleep in your gloves?" I asked.

"No, I mean you can, but mine are kinda itchy." She said. I chucked my gloves into my bag. Jumping up and grabbing onto the top rail, I pitched myself onto the top bunk.

"Night." I said.

"Nighty-night." Acacia replied. The cabin went dark, and I slipped into subconciousness.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter something or other. I've forgotten which one. 

I woke up to screaming. Not me. I rolled over and looked down at Acacia. She was screaming and thrashing in her sleep. No one was trying to help her. I remembered she didn't sleep in gloves, so nobody would want to touch her. I jumped down and kneeled by the bed.

"Acacia, wake up, wake up!" I screamed in her ear. I started slapping her. "Acacia, please, wake up!" She sat straight up and her eyes flew open.

"Lottie, oh gods!" she turned and burst into tears. She threw her arms around me and continued sobbing.

"Ssh..… It's okay. Do you wanna talk about it?" She shook her head no. After awhile she had subsided.

"It was when…. _He_…. Died." She simply explained. I nodded.

"Let's go, I want some breakkie." She looked at me funny.

"Breakkie?"

"Breakfast."

"Ohhhh…" I grabbed out some clothes and headed to the bathrooms. I picked high-waisted nautical-looking red shorts, a blue and white nautical-looking shirt, a navy military-inspired vest, my (very)old Doc Martens, and of course, my gloves. Acacia had already changed by the time I got dressed.

"Oh wait, my meds!" I ran back and found my travel bag.

"What meds?" Acacia asked.

"For ADHD and dyslexia."

"Don't take those! It numbs your battlefield reflexes! Here." She held out her hand. I reluctantly gave her the two pill bottles and she walked to the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush as she flushed them into the pipe system. I didn't question her. We walked out the door and to the mess hall. I soon realized it wasn't a hall at all. More of a pavilion. We sat at the crowded Hermes table. Strange little girls brought us food. I asked Acacia who they were.

"Tree nymphs. They actually _are _trees. That's just they're human form."

"Oh." I was brought a bowl of Lucky Charms and some orange juice. There was a jug of milk farther down the table. I reached over some people and managed to snag it. After chowing down on my cereal, I started talking to this kid with messy curly brown hair and this sarcastic smile. He said his name was Travis.

"How old are you? I'm fifteen." He sounded like he thought he was superior.

"Fourteen." Why does everyone ask that?! I noticed another kid next to him. He had the same hair and features.

"Wow." Travis said.

"Who are you?" I asked the other kid.

"Conner, Travis' brother." He replied

"Um, okay." I went back to nonchalantly sipping my juice. Everyone started to get up and walking out of the pavilion. I followed and "accidentally" kicked Travis. He turned around and angrily demanded to know why I had kicked him.

"You's odd-fish I en't kicked you once!" he looked at me funny. He didn't seem to have understood me.

"What?"

"Never mind." I started to realize that I talk kinda funny about two years ago when the teacher wrote me up for slang use. I didn't know it was slang, that's just how I talked. And it wasn't even rude. I started teaching myself to talk "properly". It still slips out sometimes.

We had walked kinda far and now we were in some arena. I soon realized there were people with swords. I hate to admit it, but I love swinging around swords, but people tend to get hurt. This place seems to encourage that so I was happy.

"Do you think you would fight with a knife or a sword?" Acacia asked me. We took a detour to a cabin that Acacia opened. It turned out to be an armory. "See, I fight with a long sword, as in its extra long." She explained. I walked around the room and picked up a few daggers.

"Can you have more than one weapon?"

"Sure….?" She said suspiciously. I found an arm sheath for one, a hip sheath for another and there were two that just had a cover, so I tucked them into my Doc Martens. One in each shoe. I turned to her and smiled.

"Oh gods……" she moaned jokingly. I noticed a large shield with a sun on it that was pierced by three lightning bolts. I thought it was kinda cool, so I took it with me. I pressed the center accidentally and it shrank to a ring that if you looked closely, it had the same design.

"Woah…." I hit the ring and it grew into a shield.

"Yeah my sword and shield do the same." Acacia said. She tapped a bracelet on one arm and another bracelet on the other arm. One grew into a _very _long sword and the other into a round shield. It had a design of a sun stabbed by three lightning bolts upside down. Exactly like mine, but inverted.

"Weird."

"Yeah." We walked back to the arena.

"Will you practice with me? I don't think I'll be good and I don't wanna get pummeled." I asked.

"Sure. I'll try not to hurt you."

"Ditto." I pulled the hip knife and held it protectively in front of my chest, and tapped the ring. It expanded out and I held that out defensively.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Acacia screamed as she flew towards me and slashed downward. I barely jumped out of the way before her. She turned and swung the sword towards my ribs. I raised my shield to block it and turned the other way to get her in the back before she could react. I pushed her to the ground and put my knee on her back to keep her down with my knife inches from her neck.

"Wow." I whispered. I heard murmurs of surprise from the surrounding crowd. I helped Acacia up and we shook hands.

**Flames make good nachos and I like nachos........ **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Since when can you fight?" Acacia asked.

"I don't know. I always thought I seemed feral." I replied. Acacia smacked me on the back of the head, but she was smiling. "So what now?"

"Do you feel like swimming?"She asked mischievously.

Thirty minutes later, Acacia and I are in swimsuits, clutching towels and running as fast as we can towards the lake. We laughed manically while jumping off the end of the dock into the cool, clear water. I climbed out, back onto the dock, and did a nice back flip. Acacia climbed out and did a cannonball.

"Oh crap…." I said. Nico, Percy, and Grover were running down the hill towards the lake too. "Did you bring your gloves?" I asked Acacia. She held up her lacily-clad hand. I got out and walked to the towels. I brought my gloves just in case.

"HAHAHHAHA!" Percy screamed out as he jumped into the water. He was followed closely by Nico and Grover. A hand grabbed my ankle and I was pulled under. As my head went under the water, I looked down and saw Percy pulling me down to the bottom. I started swearing but all that came out were bubbles. He… He seemed to be breathing normally. I couldn't (well duh), and I was getting really light-headed. I screamed that I needed air; I tried semaphore signals, pointing to my mouth and nose, waving frantically, pointing to the surface, lots of things. He just kept dragging me down till we were sitting on the bottom.

Then I could breathe. We were in a bubble of air.

"What the hell were you thinking?! I could have died!!!!!" I screamed at him. He just sat there, smirking.

"I knew what I was doing."

"How'd you know this bubble was down here, then? Huh?"

"I made this bubble. I can breathe underwater. I can control currents. Lots of things. I'm a son of Poseidon." I stared at him.

"I'm just going to take your word for it."

"That would be best."

"If I touch the bubble, will it pop?" I asked.

"Nah. I don't think so."

"If it does, will you save me?"

"Sure, whatever." He said. I walked over to the side of the bubble and stuck my hand through it.

"What the hell…?" I whispered. I pulled my hand back, took a deep breath, and stuck my head through the bubble-wall. I started giggling after I pulled my head back in.

After a while I got bored with sticking random body parts through the bubble. "I wanna go back up. Take me back." I demanded.

"Swim back yourself."

"No. Take me back."

"Maybe I don't want to leave yet."

"Well now you do. Take me back, _now_." He rolled his eyes, and grabbed my upper arm.

"Hold your breath." He popped the bubble and started swimming upward. I was dragged along like a sack. When our heads broke the surface, we were in the middle of a Marco Polo game. Grover was Marco.

"POLO!" I screamed from right behind Percy. Grover swam over and grabbed Percy's head.

"HA!" Grover yelled in triumph.

"Sorry Perce, all's fair in love and war." I said, then impulsively kissed him on the cheek. "Hey Acacia, I'm done with swimming. You?"

"Yeah. Let's go." She said laughing at Percy. We climbed onto the dock and wrapped ourselves in our towels.

"Watch out for the sea monster!" Acacia called back to the boys.

**I was differentiating between cutting out a paper doll and *updating**. And I just realized how dirty my foot is. NAcHOs NaChOs nAcHoS!!!!!!!!!!**


End file.
